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Reuters. 11 January 2002. Somali Ruler Says Country 'Terrorized' by U.S.
KHARTOUM -- The president of Somalia's transitional government said
Friday that his people had been "terrorized" by a U.S. propaganda
campaign portraying the country as a possible haven for Osama bin
Laden's followers.
President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan told Reuters television that fears of
U.S. military strikes were hindering efforts to bring peace to the
country, considered by Washington as a potential target in its war on
terror.
"People are terrorized by this campaign of propaganda against Somalia,"
Abdiqassim said in an interview in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, where
he was attending a summit.
"People are terrorized to see the largest country in the world threaten
this poor country that has been ravaged by civil war for 10 years," he
said.
Abdiqassim reiterated his position that there are no bases of bin
Laden's al Qaeda network or other extremists in Somalia, and appealed
for help from Washington to stabilize his anarchic homeland.
"We want to unite our country, and have for that the help of the
international community, so that Somalia will not be a breeding ground
for future terrorists," he said.
Abdiqassim said his fledgling government had set up a committee to
combat terrorism and arrested several suspects, but its efforts were
being hampered by a lack of resources.
Illustrating the government's problems, officials say they have not been
able to pay civil servants for four months and the information minister
has only one working telephone line.
Abdiqassim warned that warlords opposed to his attempts to unite Somalia
were keen to exploit the United States' sudden interest in his country
to strengthen their bid overthrow his administration, the most serious
attempt to establish a central government for a decade.
"For their own interest, they want to see America involved in Somalia,
Somalia bombed, and then for them to take over power like the Northern
Alliance did in Afghanistan," he said.
Diplomats say warlords who watched the Northern Alliance rebels gain
power in Afghanistan with the help of U.S. military might are seeking a
repeat performance in Somalia.
"But Somalia is not Afghanistan. The transitional national government is
not Taliban. I am not Mullah Mohammad Omar," the president said.
A team of U.S. officials visited aides to opposition warlords in the
southern town of Baidoa for talks about the war on terror last month,
raising fears among aid workers that a hasty intervention could stir
further turmoil.
Raising the specter of a disastrous U.S. humanitarian intervention in
Somalia in the early 1990s in which more than 20 American servicemen
were killed, Abdiqassim said the United States should fight terrorism by
pursuing peace, not war.
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